Against the backdrop of huge cost for repair of fighter aircraft by international aircraft manufacturers, the Nigerian Air Force said on Tuesday that 6 Alpha Jets in the NAF inventory have been repaired by its technicians thereby saving the country a whooping sum of $2.4 million that would have gone to foreign vendors.
A statement by the Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Olatokunbo Adesanya said the six aircraft would have cost the nation $400, 000 each to be put back in operational conditions.
The statement reads, “The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) is already directly reaping from its human capacity building drive, being one of the key drivers of the vision of the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar.
”The revelation came to the fore during the recent tour of operational facilities embarked upon by the CAS to the NAF unit in Kainji.
”While on the visit, Air Marshal Abubakar was briefed by the NAF technicians who had just successfully repaired six Alpha Jet aircraft engines.
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”The NAF Team that repaired the aircraft engines comprised one officer and two airmen, all of who, in December 2016, attended a 12-day Alpha Jet Aircraft Engine Assembly and Disassembly Course in Canada, as part of the NAF’s capacity building efforts.
”It is noteworthy that foreign vendors had earlier quoted the sum of $400,000 to recover each of the engines, amounting to $2.4 million to repair the 6 engines.
”However, the NAF team was able to repair the engines by using spare parts available in the warehouse.
“As a result, the country was saved the sum of over $2.4 million that would have otherwise been used to recover the engines.
”This is besides the usually huge cost of freighting the engines to and from overseas repair facilities and the associated delay.
”Meanwhile, the engines have already been installed on three Alpha Jet aircraft and deployed for air operations in the ongoing counterinsurgency operations in the northeastern part of the country.
”According to Air Marshal Abubakar, the capacity building efforts of the NAF had been made largely successful due to the unflinching support the NAF was receiving from the Federal Government, especially through timely releases of needed funds.”
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